Baseball, Ohio (Part 8)
Writer's note: In Part 7, we learned that the decision as to whether the merger name of the annexation of Basil to Baltimore would be Baltimore or Baseball would not be known until November 12, 1947. Of course, both the "Citizens Committee To Retain Baltimore" and its supporters and the "Petitioners for Baseball" and its followers were frustrated and angered by the two-month delay. Lobbying, campaigning, and arm-twisting would continue while Judge Parker deliberated on his decision. In the meantime, we will continue our story with a look at both sides of the contest. The Twin City News provides a wonderful journal of facts and opinions. In Part 8, we listen to the opinion of renowned local historian Lewis K. Cook. No one then knew or now knows more about the story of the "Twin Cities."
Twin City News
May 22, 1947
LIBERTY UNION
"Despite local knowledge of the name problem outsiders continue to pop up with suggestions. Often these are Liberty Union. Our community may be behind the times in some things but not in the suitability of that name. Approximately 25 years ago the Homemakers Club, including such well-known women as Mrs. Will Lamb. Mrs. A. G. Hansberger, Mrs. E. E. Hansberger, Mrs. W. W. Foltz, Mrs. Russell Alt promoted the union of the villages. [Editor] E. O. Weist conducted a name contest in the TWIN CITY NEWS and a very large majority voted for Liberty Union. A meeting, sponsored by the Homemakers Club, was held at the Earl Kumler home and the union enthusiastically promoted.
"What happened? The Postmaster General refused to consider LIBERTY UNION because of the confusion with numerous existing Liberties and Unions. Though acknowledging the confusion in the Baltimore mails there was no point into jumping into greater confusion—so the Club dropped the matter for the time being. Numerous other names such as Silmore, Basilmore, variations of Twin, were considered but dropped because they were not distinctive. A few years later the Homemakers Club ceased to exist and without the leadership the union question lay dormant.
"This background is offered for the benefit of outsiders or recent residents of the community. We are not a quarter century behind the parade.
"Lewis K. Cook"
Lewis Cook at his typewriter
Writer's note: "Twenty-five years ago" would have been 1922. The new Basil-Baltimore consolidated school had been in operation as the Liberty Union United School District, with the first Class of 1917 graduating in a tent while the new building was being completed. Liberty was the township in which the school was built, and Union represented the agreement between the Twin Cities to build the new school exactly on the boundary of Basil and Baltimore as a compromise in order to get a location agreement. It is also historically significant to understand that Lewis Cook had been paraplegic since the age of eighteen. He learned to use a typewriter through sheer determination, and his friend gave him carved wooden typing pegs that he used to hit each key.